Like Guadalupe Peak (see the previous entry), I'd wanted to visit the Caverns for a few years. I read up on them and seen the pictures, and I was ready for my first trip underground. Since I'd done the Caverns of Sonora a few days earlier, it wasn't an entirely new experience. However, the sheer size of the Carlsbad Caverns was quite different from those in Sonora.

I visited them twice. The first day I took the Natural Entrance and then took the loop around the Big Room. Yes, I did see a lot of things and read several of the plaques, but I also tried to do it fairly quickly. It took a little over an hour, which included me slowly jogging parts of the path. Part of that was also, to be honest, to show that I didn't have many worries about being 800' or so below the surface with uncountable tons of earth above my head.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures that day or bring along my headlamp so I could look into dark corners. I really should have.

My first visit was on a weekday. My next visit was on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

Trying to take pictures or have other quiet moments on the second day was quite difficult, as the place was packed. I'd set down the tripod, only to see yet another human wave headed my way down the narrow path. Lift tripod, wait, place tripod, see wave, repeat.

Shortly after the last human wave crashed on my shoreline, the ranger came by "sweeping" all of us tourons in front of her. So, trying to get a respite between the last elevator down and the sweeping ranger is not going to work. Better to visit on a weekday morning I guess.

Seemingly every possible photo of the Caverns has been taken, but the ceiling might be more neglected than others, so I tried to take some shots of it. It's a bit difficult because of the lighting: in the few shots I was able to try, there was always one part of the shot that was brighter than others. The above shot should just be considered a failed attempt.